The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

" | MARINE REVIEW. [December 5, SHIP BUILDING IN PHILADELPHIA AND VICINITY. Philadelphia, Dec. 4.--With the Cuban mines again in full operation and from the nature of the contracts closed during the past few weeks it is safe to say that this port will again forge to the front as the most imporant market in the country for the imports of iron ore. Not only will the Daiquiri and Santiago mines be drawn on as a basis of supply, but those in Mediterranean ports as well. Charters made from Huelva, Bilboa, Garrucha and other points of shipment show that nearly 200,000 tons of ore have already been purchased and which will be landed on the Delaware river wharves, There are now over forty big tramp steamships loading or on their way to the various ports to load cargo for Philadelphia, distributed as follows: Wabana, 12; Daiquiri, 8; Santiago, 6; Bilboa, 15; Garrucha, 3; Vizagapatam, 4; Huelva, 5. This encouraging outlook in the ore market is the source of great satisfaction to local ship builders. Edwin S. Cramp, superintending en- gineer of Cramp's ship yard, says that it is practically an assurance that the larger yards will not be crippled from lack of material. His views are also shared by President Matthias Seddinger of the Neafie & Levy com- 'pany and by the New York Ship Building Co. The problem of armor plate is still, however, a serious consideration. The importation of ore will tend to secure unlimited quantities of manufactured steel shapes such as are used in vessels, but there is no certainty that the government will hurry the armor plate mills in filling their contracts or encourage them to increase their output. Armor plate is urgently needed for the battleship Maine, building at Cramp's yard, as only two small consignments have been received here. It is practically understood that if a serious delay is occasioned the builders by its non-delivery, they will file a heavy claim against the government, as in the instance of the battleship Alabama, in which the amount named was $234,000. The Russian battleship Retvizan is ready to sail for home, having been finally accepted by that government. Capt. E. N. Stchensnovitch, her ' commander, as well as his entire staff, think she is superior to any battle- ship in the Russian navy and are still loud in their praise of her wonderful performance on the official speed run. Capt. Stchensnovitch, speaking of the disastrous effect of firing the battleship Alabama's turret guns directly across her decks, said that the Retvizan stood this stringent test extraordinarily well, only a partition or so being broken in the hold. He regrets that the 13-in. guns were not fired across decks at their extreme angle of elevation and depression. This was proposed while the vessel was undergoing her trials at sea but was abandoned owing to the objec- tion of Cramp's engineer, J. Harry Mull, who feared damage to the bridge. The balance of the Retvizan's crew is expected from home in a few days. Her full complement will be over 700 men. : The feature in the petroleum trade during the week was the sailing of | the British tank steamship Bloomfield, for Cette, France, with 2,080,864 gallons of crude petroleum. It was the largest cargo ever shipped from this port in a single vessel and in former years would have taken about eight vessels to have carried it. Shipments of petroleum from Jan. 1 to Noy. 30, inclusive, as compared with the corresponding period in 1900, show an increase in the exports of 70,591,187 gallons. The total shipment so far this year has been 360,080,692 gallons. The Neafie & Levy company is preparing to launch the torpedo boat ea Barry. This craft will probably take the water in about two weeks. : The steamship La Grande Duchesse, which-is being repaired at Roach's Ship Yard in Chester, at an expense of $50,000, for the Ocean Steamship Co. will have her name changed to City of Savannah. - Jas PROGRESS OF WORK AT NEWPORT NEWS. Newport News, Va., Dec. 8.--The prctected cruiser Vineta, of the German Imperial navy, arrived in port recently from the Danish West Indies and will be placed in dry dock at once for examination and over- hauling. It was stated at the ship yard that nothing would be known of the character of the work to be done on the Vineta until her bottom was exposed in dock. The cruiser has been stationed in the West Indies, and having some work to be done the German government decided to send her to this port, Newport News having the only private dry dock large enough to receive her. As she passed up the harbor to the ship yard salutes were exchanged with the United States battleship Alabama, which was filling her bunkers with coal off the Chesapeake & Ohio piers. The Vineta belongs to the second or protected class and her general dimen- sions follow: Length, 325 ft. 7 in.; beam, 57 ft. 10 in.; draught, 29 ft. 8 in. Her displacement is 5,900 tons. She is steel, sheathed, and has 4-in. hardened steel protection for decks and gin positions. She has triple screws, with a speed of 18 knots, and indicated horse power of 10,000. She carries two masts and three smokestacks. Her armament consists of two 8.2-in. rapid-fire guns; eight 6-in. rapid-fire guns; ten 3.4-in, guns; ten 1.4-in. guns and four guns of a milimeter caliber. She has three submerged torpedo tubes. Her normal coal supply is 500 tons. Her com- plement is 440, including officers. She was built at Danzig in 1897. During her stay it is probable that the officers of the ship will be tendered an elaborate reception by the city. _ The battleship Missouri will be launched at the ship yard Dec. 28. Miss Helen Cockrell of Missouri, now of Washington, has been selected to ee the new defender. e German steamship Scharzfelz, which arrived several days ago from Calcutta, bound for New York, landed here its crew of Mion: East Indians, better known as lascars. The Scharzfelz sailed from Cal- cutta Sept. 18. The contracts with the coolies provide that they shall not be taken farther north than this latitude and the natives were put off here until the ship's return, bound back to Calcutta. The United States Shipping Co. handles a number of ships which are manned by. coolie crews and it decided to establish a camp here for the convenience of the masters who are under orders to take their ships on to New York but can not take the lascars. The camp is a permanent institution. A The Pacific Mail leviathan Korea of 18,600 tons displacement will probably sail from the ship yard for San Francisco, via New York and the Suez canal, early in February. She will go on the route between San Francisco and Hong Kong. Her sister ship, the Siberia, will-follow in yee ee raliariene : e remodeled cruiser San. Francisco, which has been at th yard at Portsmouth for three years, will be placed in commission Tan 3. Rear' Admiral Bowles, chief constructor, is expected at the yard fee the next few days to inspect the work on the cruiser, which will be -ordered to the North Atlantic squadron. The new Morgan Line steamship El Siglo was given her builder's 'trial outside of the Virginia Capes a week ago and she developed a speed of 18 knots, making her probably the fastest ship in the coastwise_ trade. On Wednesday of last week seven large ships were handled in and out of the two dry docks at the Newport News works. Both docks are being used continually on a large amount of repair work. Officials of the yard will try to make a record on the Plant liner Olivette which is here receiving new boilers and a general overhauling. It was agreed when the bid for repairs was submitted that if conditions were favorable the work would be completed Dec. 15. The claim was made in some quariers that the work could not be done before Jan. 15. Rapid progress has been made and it is now more than probable that the ship will go to her owners by the 15th inst. : The German cruiser Vineta will be at the ship yard for about two weeks, as there is more work to be done on her than was expected. She is a triple-screw cruiser and makes a magnificent appearance as she rests in the basin. . : The battleships Alabama and Massachusetts have sailed from Hamp- ton Roads for Charleston to participate' in some of the marine exercises at the exposition. The Kearsarge will join them there next week. While in the Chesapeake bay the ships had supplementary speed trials with good results. The cruiser Topeka, which has been at Port Royal, S. C., for some time, is undergoing repairs at the navy yard. The cruiser San Francisco, which has been almost rebuilt, will be taken out of dry dock at the ship yard in a few days, and the United States collier Caesar, which has just returned from Manila, will be put in. The San Francisco will go into commission Jan. 1. The Morgan line steamship El Siglo sailed from the ship yard Sat- urday morning for New York on her maiden voyage and will go at once on the route between New York and New Orleans. El Alba, the last of the Morgan ships, will leave the yard in a month or so. SHIP YARD NOTES. The monitor Florida was launched last Saturday from the Crescent Ship Yard, Elizabethport, N. J. The launch was in every way a success. All the armor and machinery and boilers were placed in the vessel before the launch. The vessel measures 3,000 tons and cost $100,000. She is 252 ft. long, 25 ft. beam and has a draught of 12.6 ft. She is fitted with triple- expansion engines of 2,400 H.P. A five-masted wooden schooner, the James W. Paul, Jr., was launched from the ship yard of McKay & Dix, Bucksport, Me., last week. The vessel's dimensions are: Length, 250 ft.; breadth, 43 ft.; depth, 21.9 ft.; gross tonnage, 1,808; net tonnage, 1,653.75. She is the largest vessel ever built on the Penobscot river. At Bath, Me., last week, the five-masted wooden schooner Mary F. Barrett was launched from the yard of G. G. Deering. She was ready for sea when launched. Her dimensions are: Length, 241.4 ft.; breadth, 43.4 ft.; depth, 24.7 ft.; gross tonnage, 1,833; net tonnage, 1,564. Machinery is now being placed in the El Vivo, recently launched from the Johnson Iron Works, Algiers, La. The other vessel building, © El Listo, will be launched in the early part of next month. William McKie, East Boston, Mass., launched last week the four- masted schooner Kenwood for John S. Emory & Co. Her dimensions are: Length, 184.5 ft.; beam, 37.3 ft.; depth, 18.3 ft. The Pittsburg & Morgantown Packet Co. of Pittsburg, Pa., has awarded to A. Axton & Son of Brownville, Pa., a contract for a side- wheel river steamboat to cost $50,000. She will be ready to enter the Pittsburg and Morgantown trade by June next. A contract was awarded last week to the New England Ship Building Co., Bath, Me., for the construction of a 500-ton wooden schooner for Capt. M. D. McKown of Boothbay, Me. She will be 142 ft. long, 35 ft. wide, and will have a draught of 1274 ft. It is reported that Kelley, Spear & Co., Bath, Me., have secured a contract to build a steamer for the Maine Central railroad. The vessel's dimensions will be: Length, 149.6 ft.; breadth, 28.8 ft.; depth, 9.5 ft. The old ship yard of Samuel W. Tilton's Son, at Cooper's Point, Camden, has been purchased by John H. Mathis, Jr., who will at once make extensive improvements and extensions to the plant. Mr. Arthur D. Story, Essex, Mass., has been given an order to build a new 68-ton wooden schooner for Capt. James Belleveau and others of Beverly, Mass. She is to be used in the cod fisheries. The Enoch Moore & Sons Co., Wilmington, Del., is buildi wooden barge for Capt. Woodall of Georgetown, Md. oe CANADIAN DREDGES. The large hydraulic dredge J. Israel Tarte was tested in Toronto harbor on the 26th ult. This dredge was built for the improvement of the St. Lawrence route by the Polson Iron Works, Toronto, Ont., from de- signs by A. W. Robinson, consulting engineer 'to the Canadian govern- ment. She has a steel hull 160 ft. by 42 ft. by 12 ft. 6 in., and is designed to dredge clay from 50 ft. deep at the rate of 2,000 cu. yds. per hour and deposit it 2,000 ft. distant. It is capable of making a cut 300 ft. wide, being provided with a lateral feed and anchorage lines. Mr. Robinson has just completed a smaller dredge of 600 cu, yds. per hour capacity for British Columbia and which is now in service, and he is now at work on designs for a large dredge for the maritime provinces, which is intended to work in hard material in.56 ft. of water. As indicating the increase in the use of oil as fuel in coasting vessels , on the Pacific and on the Gulf of Mexico, it is noted¢from records in the office of the supervising inspector-general of steam vessels, Washington, that since Jan. 1, 1901, there have been issued permits to use petroleum as fuel on the Pacific coast to twenty-two steamers, and on the Gulfcoast twenty such permits, the latter no doubt prompted by the recent discov- eries of petroleum in Texas.